None of us wants to get to the finish line and realize all we're carrying is a bunch of stuff

​This morning Goff talks about the evolution we go through from kids to adults when it comes to gifts. He says:

"As we get older, we don't really value stuff on Christmas morning. Sure, it's fun to unwrap a present, but what we want is more availability, connection and more love."

I read that and thought, wow, how true.

As I've traveled around the state this year talking about trauma and mental health challenges, I believe more people than most people can imagine feel disconnected and unloved.

Every time I have one of these talks, I'll have people who look well put together approach me. I assume to talk about someone in their life who is suffering, who feels sad or lonely. They'll surely want to know what can they do to help this person.

But it's never about someone else. It's always about them.

We're already so crazy busy in this country that we've left people behind while we chase the American Dream. While we are on a wild pursuit of happiness our brothers and sisters are drowning in hurt. And the Christmas season - well that pursuit gets a dose of steroids.

God saw this coming. He saw us getting disconnected from each other. He saw us getting disconnected from him. And - he saw all the hurt and suffering we'd endure as a result.

So he sent a gift. A baby in a manger. And that baby wasn't to represent a gift we unwrap, but a gift to know and love. That baby would grow up and get challenged - what's the greatest commandment of all there Mr. Son of God?

And the baby would say - love God. Love one another.

Isn't it amazing, really, that in a world that is hurting and crying out in pain, looking for the answers in bottles and in screens and in anything that will help them forget they are disconnected, when challenged 2000 years ago, the baby's answer was - CONNECTION. The prescription long before the pain.

Connect in love to God. Connect in love to one another.

The Christmas season is complex. And busy. But it wasn't supposed to be. It just wasn't.